I often hear from bands, “We love vinyl but we don’t have vinyl just yet...” which is understandable. Enter the little internet wonder that is Kickstarter, and bands can pass the virtual hat and make that goal a reality.
Our friends in The Caribbean are doing just that in tandem with Scioto Records who have spearheaded a Kickstarter campaign to fund the pressing of a new 7″ single. The band’s Michael Kentoff opines a bit on just why:
“Slow on the uptake, it took me a while to realize there was a debate in our midst over the relative virtues of cds vs. vinyl. What probably did it was the sometimes strident (and loud) rhetoric coming from one side or another. That was a jolt; the “debate” (it always seemed to me) should be a nuanced disagreement between comrades, people who jointly love recorded sound, but enjoy the gentle sparring over this record vs. that, solid state vs. tubes, lava lamps vs. Quaaludes, cds vs. vinyl. A position pro need not judge the con. And yet, the debate is heated and, to me, weird.
I have always treasured the ease, portability, and sheer stackability of cds. I like that you can play them in a car. They also seem far less subject to variability of material used in manufacture or quality of stereo than vinyl. I made the leap early and, had the need arisen, would have defended the move with my life. That said, I missed the size and grandeur of vinyl – the heaviness, the gatefolds, the color, the pageantry. I was willing to give all of it up because I believed that cds simply sounded better.
Then I discovered needle-drops.
